The present invention relates generally to communications systems and, more specifically, to a reconfigurable communications system in which switching nodes are interconnectable by transmission links according to network configuration signals supplied from a network control center.
According to conventional reconfigurable communications systems, the network control center is provided with a memory in which network configuration data are stored in a matrix pattern of rows and columns so that the rows correspond respectively to predefined network configurations and the columns correspond respectively to switching nodes of the system. When the system traffic is imbalanced due to varying user's communications needs or a varying community of interest, a command is entered to a management console specifying one of the predefined network configurations which is selected as the best for balancing the system's traffic. The network configuration data corresponding to the selected configuration is retrieved from the memory and sent to the switching nodes to reconfigure the network.
However, there is a wide range of user's needs. To meet the varying user's demands many network configurations must be predefined, and, hence, a large capacity memory is required for storing corresponding network configuration data to achieve a high level of flexibility. In addition, during the network reconfiguration phases, each switching node clears all of its static connections in response to the signal from the network control center before it establishes new static connections. However, this increases the burden of the controller of each switching node.